Goal 14: Life below water

The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is the Pacific region’s premier political and economic policy organization. The key development framework for the Forum is the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent. This crucial document outlines the commitment to ensuring health and wellbeing of Pacific peoples, and to human rights and equity for all. The 2050 Strategy places emphasis on the ocean and land and celebrates Pacific communities, the natural environment, resources, livelihoods, faiths, cultural values and traditional knowledge. 

The Santiago Network was established at COP25 in Madrid as part of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of “catalysing technical assistance of relevant organisations, bodies, networks and experts, for the implementation of relevant approaches for averting, minimise and addressing loss and damage at the local, national and regiona

The Words into Action guide offers practical guidance to help government authorities integrate disaster displacement and other related forms of human mobility into regional, national, sub-national and local DRR strategies in accordance with Target (E) of the Sendai Framework, to revise or develop DRR strategies by 2020. It provides basic background information and highlights the various roles DRR and DRM can play in reducing, preparing for and responding to disaster displacement.

The guide is primarily intended to support the work of:

The Conference of the Parties (COP) and the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA), through decisions 2/CP.27 and 2/CMA.4, established new funding arrangements for assisting developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, in responding to loss and damage.

The Climate Mobility Pavilion (CMP), organized by the Global Centre for Climate Mobility (GCCM) in association with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), was a dedicated space at COP28 for actors to discuss and advance solutions for mitigating and addressing the impacts of the climate crisis on human mobility. It aimed to center efforts on the adaptation journeys of climate vulnerable communities, as well as advance people-centered climate action.

The Climate Mobility Summit is an all-day event in the margins of the United Nations High-Level Week bringing together global champion leaders and Principals of relevant UN organizations and stakeholder entities to discuss ways to harness climate mobility for adaptation and resilience, as well as to press for climate action to prioritize climate-resilient development around the adaptation needs of populations affected by the climate crisis, particularly those forced to leave the places they call home.

At COP27 (2022), Tuvaluan Minister Simon Kofe announced that Tuvalu will become the First Digital Nation: that it would digitally recreate its land, archive its rich history and culture, and move all governmental functions into a digital space.

Rising Nations Initiative and German Archaeological Institute will create an online repository and presentation platform of culture & heritage for the benefit of the Tuvaluan people and the pan-Pacific community, as well as researchers and the global public.

The project is funded by the Federal Foreign Office. 

 The repository will reunite, in one virtual place, digital representations of Tuvalu’s existing tangible and intangible cultural heritage — heritage which is threatened by anthropogenic climate change and sea-level rise.

The President of the UNGA hosted a Breakfast Summit on Addressing Existential Threats of Sea-level Rise in September 2023, which was attended by eight Heads of State and Government and 14 ministers, as well as chiefs of UN entities. The Summit resulted in the launch of the Coalition for Addressing Sea-level Rise and its Existential Threat (C-SET), co-chaired by Germany and Tuvalu and led by a Group of Champions, namely Antigua and Barbuda; Costa Rica; Denmark; Morocco; New Zealand; Bangladesh; the Republic of Korea; Malta; Palau; and Romania. 

As the climate crisis deepens, low-lying countries are witnessing significant amounts of their territory being rendered uninhabitable, with some facing the prospect of complete inundation from rising sea level. For many Small Island Developing States, this represents a catastrophic threat to their political, social, economic and cultural fabric and the Pacific Atoll countries are at the frontline of this global climate emergency.